Government’s Amtrak a joke, expect the same in socialized healthcare
The Government Accountability Office found last November that Amtrak had received more than $30 billion in federal aid since its creation in 1971, but was still in “poor financial condition,” with extensive deferred maintenance.
Today Amtrak has 632 usable rail cars, and dozens more are worn out or damaged but could be reconditioned and put into service at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars each.
And it needs to buy new rail cars soon. Its Amfleet cars, the ones recognizable to riders as the old Metroliners, are more than 30 years old. And the Acela trains, which have been operating about eight years, have about a million miles on them.
Amtrak has actually lost $1 billion a year since 2002.
Alot of American’s seem to think that socialized healthcare is the answer. But when government controls services, the services don’t turn out to be so great. Democrats have even talked about controlling the oil industry. What’s next? The airlines or how about freaking food. Yeah, food is a life necessity isn’t it? Nobody should be hungry, so let’s ration food. America, we better watch it or else we will fall right into the hands of Communism. Government will be telling you when you can take a shit.
Read the full story on Amtrak.
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July 1st, 2008 at 7:22 pm
What a terrible, disingenuous pile of crap. Amtrak is in such bad shape because of 30 years of GOP attempts to kill it. It is actually a testament to the poor thing that it’s still alive after all the fund-gutting switcharoos the Republicans have pulled over the years.
If the GOP pulls out all the stops and behaves towards a universal health system like they have behaved towards Amtrak, then yes, it will certainly be an awful thing. If, however, they can be shamed into leaving it alone, as they were forced to leave Medicaid/Medicare alone (until 2002 or so) then it will flourish in the same way both of those programs did.
The Republican view of the Federal government as bloated and corrupt has made the Federal government bloated and corrupt (with apologies for the paraphrase).
July 1st, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Oh and a follow-up because I see you’re a Libertarian: if the government can be entrusted to run a military - a large and difficult endeavor involving management of multiple types of R&D and manufacturing industries, human management on a colossal level and enormous logistical hurdles - what then makes it incapable of running any other type of program efficiently? Universal healthcare is a complex problem, but nowhere near as complex as what the pentagon maintains on a daily basis. In fact, the military *runs* a universal healthcare system with a much more complex emergency care contingent then anything seen in the civilian world.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Actually Congress has a terrific health plan, the administration of which is low cost and efficient and the carriers are guaranteed a set profit that’s reevaluated every year. Congressmen can choose from a number of different plans depending on their own needs.
And a whole lot of Federal employees have the same plan, so it’s already scaling up pretty well.
And Chad, nice work, I’ll have to steal your arguments for later use
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 am
Your information about the railroad - its history, its fleet, its costs, and its genesis - are all wrong. As Chad said, you’re full of crap.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Right. Because just like mass transit by rail, healthcare is something that has dwindled in demand in the face of massive infrastructure projects and cheap oil.
June 9th, 2009 at 11:47 am
You people are idiots. Medicaid/Medicare costs are crippling state and federal governments. They are full of fraud and waste. They pay out billions of dollars in false claims to people who open fake doctors offices and send in bills for millions of dollars using fake or stolen ss numbers. No one in the gov. has to be accountable so they just pay the bills and ask for more money. If it’s breaking the bank now what’s going to happen when add everyone into the system?
As far as the government running the military I don’t think you’ll find too many people who would say they do so “efficiently”, but I think common sense will tell you that we can’t privatize the military. And I don’t know if you’ve seen or read anything about the conditions of the facilities and the quality of treatment received in the universal healthcare system that the military runs, but I’m not sure that would be a real good example to defend your position. Actually, I believe it makes a wonderful point for the opposing argument.
Congress does have a pretty good health care plan with choices and competition provided by private insurers. It is not cheap though unless it it subsidized by the government. If you were not a gov. employee and you wanted to “buy into” the plan as Obama wants it would cost well over $800 per month on a family plan in Kentucky. Basically the same plan with the same cost that you could call an insurance company and get today on your own. Actually if you’re healthy you could probably even do a little better.
I’m don’t know a lot about the train industry but it seems to me that a company that is has demand and is well run should be able to support itself. And if what you’re doing hasn’t fixed a problem in over thirty years, you’re probably not doing the right things to fix the problem.
The United State government is the most and inefficient organization in the history of the world. It is filled with waste and corruption on both sides. It operates with no accountablity and basically no budget constraints. Do a little research on government projects and see how many of them ever come in on time and within budget. It never happens and they’re not even close. Why would anyone on either side want to put this government in charge of anything more than the bare minimum?
July 17th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Chad you are an idiot. Everything the government touches turns to crap. They are not businessmen, they are experts in losing $ not making it.Have you ever seen any big business recruit some government flunky to run their company? Hell no. Just look at failures like SS,medicare,Amtrak,GM takeover and soon Universal health care.
Politicians are politicians because they can’t do anything else.
Travis is right see the link below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak
July 17th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Chad,
The military HAS to be run by the government. The reasons for that are obvious.
Thank you for using the military as a great example of government run programs. It’s the only thing we agree on. I assure you after 13 years in the US Army, that it is far from a great example of efficiency. The politicians and military bureaucrats cause waste.
The things that the Armed Forces do well are a testament to the soldiers NOT the government. And FYI, the military is smart enough to contract out health care not run it with politicians (who are trying to serve their own consituents).
If you want government run anything, let it be done at the state level. The 10th amendment makes that clear. It is so obvious that California, Kansas, and New York all have different needs. If you were to take those decisions closer to the people, EVERYTHING would run more effecient, we’d have more freedom, more people would get involved in politics, and people could reach across the aisle to get the job done much easier.